Berry Forum Participates in Historic March on Behalf of Care of Earth

7/28/2016

Members of the Thomas Berry Forum traveled to Philadelphia on July 24, 2016, to participate in a march for Care of Earth. The event was co-sponsored by Food and Water Watch of Pennsylvania to protest the fracking practices underway in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The larger purpose was to remind delegates to the Democratic National Convention meeting in Philadelphia of their obligations to take responsibility for care of Earth in the platforms and campaigns that will come out of discussions at the Convention.

Organizers estimated in excess of 10,000 participants in the march from City Hall in Philadelphia to the mall at Independence Hall at the center of the city. The temperature hovered in the mid 90s and added a special challenge to the day. Prayers and music opened the event in the courtyard of Philadelphia City Hall. The first speaker at the Prayer Service was Chief Perry of the local indigenous peoples, the Lenni Lenape, whose history near the area reaches back approximately 100 centuries.

Sr. Kathleen Deignan, Dr. Brian Brown and Br. Kevin Cawley of the Thomas Berry Forum for Ecological Dialogue were the Iona representatives for this historic gathering.